San Francisco Chronicle: State archives documents put online to be used in classrooms. “Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea says she’s making the primary source documents available in this way for the first time as part of American Archives Month, so educators can use them in their classrooms. The teacher resources section on the Department of State website features an interactive timeline of Rhode Island’s history from 1600 to the present and themed collections of significant archival documents dating back to the 1600s.” This brief story does not provide links to the archival documents, so try looking at http://sos.ri.gov/divisions/Civics-And-Education/teacher-resources . I’m not 100% certain when this launched.

Engadget: Stephen Hawking makes his doctoral thesis available online. “Ever wondered how Stephen Hawking saw the universe as a doctoral candidate, when his theories about black holes were just coming into fruition? You don’t have to hear about it second-hand — you can now go straight to the source. The legendary cosmologist has published his 1966 doctoral thesis online for anyone to read, making it available to the public for the first time. Hawking is posting his work in hopes that it’ll spark interests in both space itself and sharing research. ‘I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet,’ he said.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

The Economist: A better way to search through scientific papers . “ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is not just for playing games. It also has important practical uses. One such is in Semantic Scholar, a system developed by researchers at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, in Seattle, for the purpose of ferreting out the scientific papers most relevant to a particular problem. This week Marie Hagman, the project’s leader, and her colleagues have launched an updated version of the system.”

BusinessWire: Trust First: Kaspersky Lab Launches Its Global Transparency Initiative; Will Provide Source Code – Including Updates – for a Third-Party Review; Will Open Three Transparency Centers Worldwide (PRESS RELEASE). “Kaspersky Lab today announces the launch of its Global Transparency Initiative as part of its ongoing commitment to protecting customers from cyberthreats, regardless of their origin or purpose. With this Initiative, the company will engage the broader information security community and other stakeholders in validating and verifying the trustworthiness of its products, internal processes, and business operations, as well as introducing additional accountability mechanisms by which the company can further demonstrate that it addresses any security issues promptly and thoroughly. As part of the Initiative, Kaspersky Lab intends to provide the source code of its software – including software updates and threat-detection rules updates – for independent review and assessment.” If you’re wondering why Kaspersky felt it necessary to take this step, you can get background here.

Neowin: More Chrome traffic is encrypted than ever before. “Google has issued a new transparency report which details how much Chrome traffic is encrypted across different platforms. Some highlights from the data are that 64% of Chrome traffic on Android is now using HTTPS encryption compared to 42% a year ago, over 75% of Chrome traffic on ChromeOS and the Mac is now protected – that’s up from 67% and 60% respectively, and that 71 of the top 100 sites on the web now use HTTPS by default, up from 37 a year ago.”

USEFUL STUFF

MakeUseOf: 12 Great Smartphone Photo-Editing Apps You Might Not Know. “It’s safe to say there’s no shortage of photo-editing apps for smartphone photographers out there. Whatever your creative soul needs, there’s a good chance someone has already crafted an app to fulfill it. At the same time, because of the endless options out there, it can be difficult to choose the app that’s perfect for you.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Yahoo Finance: Google, Facebook and other tech titans are pouring millions into DC lobbying as hearings loom. “Some of the biggest names in technology have been lavishing millions on Congress during the third quarter, according to government documents — at a time when they’re under increasing regulatory scrutiny from Washington. The disclosures, required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act, revealed Google spent $4.17 million lobbying congress this most recent quarter. Facebook spent $2.85 million, while Twitter spent $120,000. The figures were first reported by Bloomberg News.”

The Register: Sarahah anonymous feedback app told: ‘You’re riddled with web app flaws’ . “The web-based version of anonymous feedback app Sarahah is riddled with security flaws, according to a researcher. Sarahah is a well established mobile app that allows people to receive anonymous feedback messages from friends and co-workers. Flaws in the technology make it vulnerable to web-based attacks including cross-site scripting and CSRF, according to security researcher Scott Helme.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

TechCrunch: After the end of the startup era. “Hordes of engineering and business graduates secretly dream of building the new Facebook, the new Uber, the new Airbnb. Almost every big city now boasts one or more startup accelerators, modeled after Paul Graham’s now-legendary Y Combinator. Throngs of technology entrepreneurs are reshaping, ‘disrupting,’ every aspect of our economy. Today’s big businesses are arthritic dinosaurs soon devoured by these nimble, fast-growing mammals with sharp teeth. Right Er, actually, no. That was last decade. We live in a new world now, and it favors the big, not the small. The pendulum has already begun to swing back. Big businesses and executives, rather than startups and entrepreneurs, will own the next decade; today’s graduates are much more likely to work for Mark Zuckerberg than follow in his footsteps.” Good morning, Internet…

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